Looking for Perfection in an Imperfect Universe
by karrenia
Summary: One spatial rip, along with one High Guard ship, and a crew from an alternate dimension spell trouble for Captain Dylan Hunt: A case of 'we have met the enemy and they are ourselves.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Fireworks Entertainment and Tribune Inc,; they are not mine. Notes: References events from both the 1st and 2nd season of Andromeda, but verges into slightly an AU category for bringing in the Mirror Universe versions of the crew. 

"Looking for Perfection in an Imperfect Universe" by Karen

It was certainly not the first time they had come across a duplicate Andromeda, so it came as a bit of a mild surprise that they should stumble across another one.

Still, Dylan could not help feeling more and more like some anachronistic relic of the past, sure he was grateful to be alive, pulled out his limbo existence on the event horizon of a black hole by the members of his present crew three hundred years later, but it still nagged at him.

Three hundred years ago the Commonwealth had built numerous ships of the line utilizing the same overall design, most of those were no gone, along with their crews, after the devastating war between the Commonwealth and the combined forces of the Netizchean armies in which the allied forces fell at last.

The Andromeda Ascendant was the biggest and powerful ship he had ever had the honor of serving aboard. It was both beautiful and deadly, two factors not lost on its present crew and captain.

He had ordered the ship to hold its position just outside an area of space nicknamed the Ship's Graveyard.

"Status?" Dylan said.

"Peachy keen, jelly bean," acting chief engineer Seamus Harper chimed in. He waved his hands in the air to show that he understood that Dylan was asking about the ship's systems not the crew's general well-being.

"Routine close and long-range scans indicate that most if not all of those vessels are dead in the water," Tyr Anzazi said from his station at the weapons console.

"Any chance of our sister ship is getting out of there?" Dylan asked.

"Slim to none," Tyr replied.

"Better than nothing, if those are my only options," Dylan replied ignoring the snide and ever so slight sneer that curved the big Nietzchean's mouth..

An expression that in no uncertain terms meant to convey how contemptuous of all those who were not big, strong, smart, and resilient, or of his race. In other words, anyone who could not be like him. ' Dylan thought, 'would end up on the receiving end of that particular expression.'

Dylan shoved the thought into a back corner of his mind and then turned to his crew, "I want to retrieve that ship. Can it be done?"

"Yeah, but why would you want to?" Harper muttered.

Dylan chose to ignore that remark. "Something is not right with this picture," he muttered aloud to no in particular.

"Oh, do tell," Beka Valentine replied. ⌠"Such as, our current heading is 300 parsecs from a ship's graveyard, is that what you mean by something that is wrong, or is it just that anyone who would be contemplating salvaging that wreck from among all the other wrecks would have to be out of their minds?"

"Well, I had not considered that," Dylan replied stepping forward to where Beka sat at the ship's helm controls and placing his hand on the armrest, staring out the view screen at the cluttered mass of floating wrecks.

Among the other wrecks was a ship's the lines and conformation of which Dylan Hunt would have known anywhere; an exact duplicate of the Andromeda Ascendant. This one, although appeared to have suffered heavy damage and scans showed no life signs of any kind aboard the derelict ship.

"We could use the Andromeda's gravitational cables to get it out of there, if you still think that it is a good idea, however, it would make more sense to take the Eureka Maru instead."

"I'll take it under consideration," Dylan replied.

"Why is it, that every time a situation like this comes up," Beka interrupted, "that my ship is always the first to be put under fire?"

"Because, you love it," Harper mock-teased her.

"Oh, yes, that must be it," Beka nodded.

Interlude

Aboard the derelict ship in a room off the aft cargo bay several cylindrical-shaped machinery began to flash with green indicator lights, sparking and wavering, then finally holding steady. There were a total of five cryogenic sleep pods, and at some apparently prearranged signal the lids of each of the pods snapped open, allowing their occupants to step out.

Encounter

Later, inside the cavernous cargo bay of the Andromeda Ascendant Dylan Hunt stood facing his duplicate from the other side of the spatial vortex and did not particular care for what he saw.

Aside from a few minor differences, his duplicate sported a goatee on his finely chiseled chin; other than that it was like staring at his reflection in the mirror.

For the his part, flanked as he was by his own crew, again duplicates of Beka Valentine, Seamus Harper, Tyr Anazazi, and Rev Bem; Dylan noticed something else odd about the tableau; the duplicate of Trance Gemini was missing. Somehow, Dylan, realized in a back corner of his mind, that omission might prove to be very significant in the long run.

"What do you want?" Dylan demanded. Truth be told the whole thing was giving him a major headache.

His double smiled, and it was not a pleasant one, "Why ask me? You have all the answers, after all, you were the one who rescued us, not the other way around."

He shrugged as if to indicate not only boredom with the entire situation but also ignorance of any knowledge or responsibility. Dylan grinded his teeth and tried another approach.

"We scanned your ship for life signs before we brought on board. Care to explain how you managed to be very much alive?"

"Short answer," the Beka duplicate replied, and spread her hands in the universal gesture of no harm, no foul, "Cryogenic sleep pods. We were trapped in that pocket space fold a long time, and it was the only option left to us. I am certain you would have done the same under the circumstances, Dylan."

His own Beka Valentine barked out a short derisive laugh at that, "Yeah, I'm so sure, and for your next trick, you pull of a disappearing act."

"If nothing else," Trance suddenly spoke up, "This might become frightfully confusing to tell everyone apart."

Rev Bem, who stood respectively at the far edge of the group, eyed the newcomers with the same regard that a judge might regard a condemned criminal about to be sentenced. The fur on his body had become bristly and he had his hand wrapped around the front of his brown Wayist robes.

His own double returned the look with one of his own, and apparently without much haste or self-conscious doubt, raised his hand to smooth face and exposed arms, as if trying to rub it in.

There was no doubt in Rev Bem's mind that these intruders meant danger and he was about to say as much when Beka tugged on his sleeve and he waited for Dylan's decision.

"May I add something here?" Harper asked, stepping forward. "I would just like to say for the record, that according to almost all known physical laws of the universe, a person cannot occupy the same time and space as his double."

Harper paused and sucked in deep lungful of oxygenated air. "So, you guys, can just vamoose. There, problem solved."

"Problem, not solved." The Dylan Hunt double sneered. "You see, because our ship was damaged in the explosion, we will need to find another ship with a slipstream drive."

The Tyr double sidled over and whispered something in the other man's ear.

The mirror-Dylan cocked his head to one side, thinking the matter through, and then grinned, rubbing the small blond goatee on his chin. "Now that you mention it, why go back to our home universe at all. We could just take over the ship and remain in this one."

The mirror-Harper added. "We would have to eliminate the current, well, doubles. This universe's Harper is right about one thing."

"Which is?" the mirror-Tyr asked.

"The laws of the physics will not allow to us to occupy the same space and time for much longer, the whole area could boom at any second. We need to get out here, fast."

"Is Trance still at helm?" Dylan asked.

"Yes."

"Beka, get back to the Command Post and plot a course out of this sector. Now!" Dylan ordered.

"I'm on it. While you're doing that inform Rommie what's been going on down here, before the Andromeda's AI system becomes confused and starts to think we are the intruders."

"Good idea." Beka said and then sprinted for the doorway, which slid open, and she then was through, up the corridor, inside the turbo lift and headed toward the bridge.


	2. The Mirror Liars

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions as do all of the characters; they are not mine. 

Summary:We have met the enemy; and they are ourselves. The present day crew comes face to face with evil counterparts of themselves from an parallel universe. Notes: Written for 100 situations challenge, Table 3 prompt #50 sport The story picks up almost immediately where the previous story, "Looking for Perfection," left off.

"The Mirror Liars" by Karen

"I don't like this," Tyr rumbled sitting at the helm of the ship.

The newcomers had come peaceably enough to their assigned quarters, with the additional security protocols in place. Just because they looked, acted, sounded, and even smelled just like the present crew of the Andromeda, did not mean that all sense was forgotten.

For the most part their alleged counterparts were doing as they were told and not causing any trouble, but to Tyr's way of thinking that relatively speaking it was only the calm before the storm.

Difficult as it was to accept the idea that each member of the crew could possibly have a exact double from some alternate universe was not what concerned him by this point, it was the idea that it meant that their own safety would now be compromised. Tyr was nothing if not a pragmatic survivor, whatever Captain Hunt and other members of the crew might believe.

Turning to the ship's acting engineer, he asked. "Let me understand one thing, the odds of this happening I would imagine are quite astronomical, am I correct in that assumption?"

"Yeah, you would be correct. Tyr, good buddy, just what are you driving at?" asked Harper asked with that impish and impudent grin firmly back in place once the initial shock of the visitors' arrival had worn off.

Harper glanced around and then adopted a more serious expression as well.

"You know, I know that Dylan wants to get the ship as far away from that spatial anomaly as possible, because the odds of the ship going boom are far greater than the idea that we would have parallel universe counterparts, but.." Harper paused for a moment rubbing his face with one hand, the other stuffed deep into one of the numerous pockets of those atrocious orange pants.

Then Harper added: "I for one would be just as happy to go back, find that portal and shove them through bodily."

Tyr eyed the young human engineer appraisingly for a few brief seconds. "Intrestingly enough, I was wondering about that. Is it possible?"

"Tyr, I may be an engineering genius, and I like to speculate on theoretical quantum physics as much as the next guy," Harper shrugged. "I hate to admit this, but I just don't know. Maybe we should ask Trance. Just between you and me, she might be the key to this whole thing."

"Why do you say that?" asked Beka in some surprise.

"Because, among all of our lovely duplicates, the only one missing from the bunch, is a certain purple-skinned girl."

"I'm with Tyr," Beka added, "I don't like having them on board the ship. It's creepy and it can't be any good. What did Harper, that multiple versions of ourselves can't exist simultaneously right?"

"That's right." Harper nodded encouragingly, "But as stated it was a working theory, one that's never been proven."

Harper paused in his rambling explanation noting with some alarm and mixed amusement the impatient expression on the faces of his listeners so he decided to skip through the more complicated details and get straight to the point; he sighed, "So far, nothing has blown up. So we're good right there."

"Blow up?" Tyr asked.

"Not that it will," Harper hastily assured everyone, "Just that it could, and that's a very large 'could', would, might, but that does not mean that it will. Damn it, the language is imprecise when dealing with stuff like multiverses and theoretical probabilities."

Interlude

The room was spacious by most space-faring standards, warm, dry, comfortable, and had all the available amenities that they could ask for. Still, with all of them packed in together, it did feel a little bit on the crowded side.

Mirror-double Dylan removed the sheer foam strip from his above his upper lip and on his chin to reveal a narrow and scruffy-looking goatee. "I can't believe I actually agreed to wear that thing," he muttered with some distaste as it fluttered to the floor.

"You were the one who insisted that coming in to this, we try and come as close as possible to matching the physical and personalities traits of our counterparts on this side of the spatial anomaly," Beka's double replied, with even going to the trouble of adding the customary 'Captain'

"Yes, but I am beginning to reconsider this."

The Wayist Magog piped up: "Perhaps we should have taken the opportunity to draw our counterparts to our side of things," he paused as a fit of coughing overtook him, then recovered once more, he added. "Now would not that make for an entertaining ride."

"If you didn't want to come along you could have said so before we left," the bearded version of Dylan Hunt irritably grumbled.

"I suppose there'ss no help for it," Tyr's double added from where he had taken a comfortable if deceptively relaxed stance against the far wall of the spacious room. "What is done is done and I for one, feel that now that we are committed on this course, we must do whatever it takes to ascertain our victory."

"Sometimes," mirror Harper said with a wicked grin, "'I'd say that he was channeling his doppelganger, then again with him it has never been that clear-cut to determine where exactly a Nitetzchean's loyalties lie."

"In the same place where they have always been, Mr. Harper, squarely with himself."

The alternate version of Captain Dylan hunt sighed deeply, and mentally calculated the odds of how much it would take to brain the lot of them with a blunt instrument,; then decided against, but not only where there no handy tools close to hand, it also made the workability that much more difficult.

"So, let met get this straight," Bek's double asked, "Will we be able to control the ship once we eliminate our, shall we say,"she uttered a short barking laugh, 'other selves'?"

"Mr. Harper,■ Dylan's double prompted the engineer.

"I've got the data chip, and it should not be too hard to convince the Andromeda's AI that we're the crew that she recognizes as being legit."

"Well, then, we wait and when I give the order, you've got a green light."

Mirror-Beka smiled. "I've always wanted to be at the helm of this universe'ss Andromeda Ascendant. She smiled again and it was not an entirely unpleasant one. Then she reached up to brush a strand of blond hair away from her blue eyes. ⌠So much nicer, cleaner and easier to handle than our version. At least, it's not all pock marked and beaten up, and looking like it deserves to be towed away to a junk heap."

"It might be a good idea to keep that from our hosts, Captain Valentine," mirror-Tyr said, not entirely without being cynical.

"You all know what to do?" the mirror version of Captain Dylan Hunt asked, more from the sake of going through the motions than worry that the plan he and his crew had formulated months ago when their universe's version of Trance Gemini had discovered one of many gateways between their own and this one, could be traversed, safely.

48 hours later

Dylan stood at the computer bank alongside the ship's AI counterpart, Rommie, Dylan had his arms folded over his chest, contemplating the images scrolling across the screen.

"Do you think I am being pessimistic to think that our counterparts are up to no good and might try something, oh, I don't know, dangerous, at any time?"

"You would be a fool not to," Tyr commented from the far end of the hallway his deep voice rumbling down and echoing off the walls. He came closer and gave Rommie a brief nod.

"I no longer find this situation remotely amusing. Tyr paused and then added. "I suggest, Captain, that we eliminate our doubles before they remove us from the picture entirely."

"You think that's what they are doing here. That they plan to take over the ship?"

"I have given the matter some thought, and I believe that is what they intend."

"Until I have further prove that their intention are less than honorable," Dylan stiffly replied, " I would like to keep my options open. However, Tyr, I will keep your suggestion under advisement."

"As you say, Captain," Tyr nodded and walked back in the direction that he had come from.

"Rommie," Dylan asked turning to face her. "Beka is right about one thing, and tha it is becoming very creepy having our other selves around, if nothing else it is just damn inconvenient and confusing."

"Yes Sir," Rommie replied in an even tone, "If I might make a suggestion, ask Trance."

"Trance? Why?"

"Because as Harper noted, she was the only that did not have a double appear aboard the ship, that might be significant omission," Rommie said. "If nothing else, she might shed some light on the present situation."

Dylan found Trance in the infirmary a puzzled frown marring the otherwise smooth skin of her forehead, and seeing her seemingly absorbed in her thoughts waited half in and half out of the doorway, before he came all the way in and crossed the room to where Trance stood. "Oh, hi."

"Hi, yourself," he replied. "Any ideas, suggestions, brilliant schemes as how we go about dealing with our other selves?" he asked.

Trance looked up, her pale lilac skin tone darkening a shade, but it might have been either his imagination or a trick of the lights. Dylan began to worry, Trance was many things, some of them even her closets and longest friends might not have been aware of, but there was something about this situation that had disturbed her normally bubbly and optimistic nature. "Dylan, I don't like this. We need to get them back where they came from, otherwise the consequences good be dire."

"Sufficiently vague and ominous a prediction as I've ever heard." Dylan somberly replied, reaching out to hold Trance steady when he realized that the tense set of her shoulders was actually trembling.

"I didn't mean it, oh, I, you understand, don't you?" Trance asked in an undertone.

"Yeah, don't worry." Dylan reassured her.

"We will need to check the computer's star charts and find another spatial anomaly from which the mirror doubles originated, and get them to go back to where they came from."

"Easy enough," Dylan nodded his head. "And if they don want to go back peaceably, what then?"

"We have a fight our hands," replied Trance stepping out of Dylan's embrace.

"Somehow, that does not surprise me." Dylan tilted his head to one side, thinking over what it would feel like to have to fight his own mirror double, albeit one that had originated from a parallel universe, then he said: "The only thing that concerns me is if it does come to a fire fight, is trying to distinguish the real crew from the mirror universe crew."

"Typical," Trance smiled, her considerable poise and calm back in place. "Knowing Beka and Tyr, you will most likely sort it out after the fight is over."

"Most likely," Dylan nodded. "Are you gonna be okay, Trance?"

"I will now. Go, go, you've got lots to do."

Rommie's avatar and the screen image both registered and reported a sudden anomalous surge in the energies, sustained and powerful while it lasted, enough to make the present whereabouts of the mirror universe crew unhelpfully imprecise.

Recovered, Rommie immediately informed Captain Hunt, who ordered a full alert status, checked on the whereabouts of his own crew. Harper was in the Machine Shop, Tyr and Rev Bem in their quarters, and Trance in her garden, while he and Beka were on the bridge.

"Tyr, get up to the bridge. While you're doing thatfind Mr. Harper and have him a run a scan on the ship's systems. It might be just a distraction, to keep us busy while they make they're next move," Dylan said, over the ship's communication system.■

"They're idiots, if they think to try anything," Beka casually commented from over her shoulder, he attention on keeping the ship on a steady course.

"I know, I know." Dylan nodded. "Still we can't rule anything out."

"One Tyr Anasazi, not to mention our other duplicates, is more than enough for me," Beka dryly commented, "I should think, gives me a headache. I'll be glad when this is all behind us."

"I would tend to agree with you, Beka."

At that precise moment, their mirror doubles burst through the door, with Trance trussed and draped limply over the broad shoulders of mirror double, Dylan Hunt.

"Now the party's really begin to heat up," he casually remarked. "Seems I've taken away your good luck charm."

"Damn it," Beka snarled under her breath. "Leave her alone! She has nothing to do with this, and even if she wer nott my best friend, only a coward hides behind a living child. You are so dead if you've harmed her!"

"Hold, Beka," Dylan replied, "That's most likely the reaction they were hoping to provoke you into, by this pulling this infantile stunt." Dylan glared at his own duplicate. "I had wondered just how closely the two universes paralleled, now I know."

"Whatever are you babbling about?" the mirror double Tyr growled. "Let us deal with our counterparts as planned."

"In good time," mirror double Rev Bem whispered. "I should think we were agreed on that particular phase of the plan."

"Enough talk," Tyr stated and whipped his laser gun from its sheath and begun firing at will.

Out of the corner of her eye Beka noticed her own double creeping up on her/ When Beka saw her opening shespun around in the pilot's seat and when the other woman was close enough, curled up her legs and kicked out at the double's mid section with one black booted foot.

The double grunted from the impact and reached up to pull from her chair.

In the back of her mind, Beka wondered, 'What kind oft perverse cosmic fate not only brings our doubles here, but also makes them so blantally, well, for lack of a better word, laughably dense? If they are really us, well, us from another universe, why don't we know everything about how we act, think, and more importantly at the moment, fight?'

Beka shoved the thought into a back corner of her mind and concentrated on taking out her double as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This denseness might in fact be an act to wrest control of the helm, and if that was the case Beka would make she that damn well never happened.

Dylan sighed, and removing his own gun from its holster retuned fire, pivoting first one way and then the other as the positions of his targets kept changing. The Andromeda Ascendant's bridge was large by the standards of most space0-faring species in the galaxy, and relatively uncluttered in terms of the various stations,; not a lot of places to take up a defensive action, or for that matter counter-offensive. In the midst

The inter-ship communication chimed and Harper's voice came on. "Dylan, we're golden," the young human's voice was chipper and laced with barely in-held excitement. "I've locked on to the coordinates for another solid spatial anomaly."

"How far away are we?" Dylan asked.

"If we continue on our same speed and course," Harper replied from the engineering deck. "I'd say, we're within at least three or four slipstream jumps from here."

"Acknowledged, Mr. Harper," Dylan said. Turning to Beka, "Can you do it?"

"Can ducks swim?"

"I'll take that as a yes," Dylan replied. "This has been a very long day and it does not appear likely that it will let up any time soon."

"You can't make us go back there!" mirror-Beka screeched. "You don't know what's it like."

"No, I do not," Beka remarked, "and for the record, nor do I want to know, sister."

"Even if it means our own survival," mirror-Tyr stated.

"You would have to bring that up," growled mirror-Rev Bem. "Seriously, is that all you ever think about? He threw up his hands in mingled disgust, but the performance was not entirely convincing,. "Nitzecheans, you just can't take them along to any party. They spoil the fun."

"Shut up, or we'll muzzle you," mirror-Tyr growled back.

"Look, just give it up." Dylan sighed realizing that they were stalling because the charge on their weapons, had run diown.'And where did they get those, I wonder?"

"Surrender now, and we might be able to work toward some kind of mutually satisfying compromise."

"Hell," the mirror-double Dylan Hunt replied throwing his side arm to the ground at his feet and raising his arms in surrender. ⌠It was a long-shot from the get.-go. He stole a significant glance at his mirror-crew. "Don't look at me that way."

Conclusion

True to her own prediction the mirror universe crew had not gone down without a fight, nor had they been at all willing to being sent back to their own universe, but in the end, they had gone.

At the moment, her friends were occupied in cleaning up the mess, from the wreckage that had been the landing bay. Trance had volunteered to clean up in some of the lower decks including the one that held her garden.

Trance Gemini crouched down in the soil of her garden carefully putting the last touches on her plants that she taken from a seedling to its present flourishing greenery and wondered as to the outcome. She found her mind wandering from the concentration necessary to provide the proper mix of nutrients and water for her plants, but at the moment she had bigger things to worry about.

One of those worries happened to be the mirror-universe crew, in the confusion of the fighting, it had been difficult to determined if they had managed to get everyone sorted out. If that was not bad enough, Trance discovered that she was more bothered than she might have otherwise been at the absence of her own presence among the interlopers from the other neighboring alternate universe.

She was having enough trouble getting the crew comfortable and accepting of her new golden adult version, to have to worry that in some alternate universe, she did not exist at all, or if she had, she might conceivably be dead.

Trance cocked her head to one side the dark loamy soil momentarily forgotten trickling through her slim fingers. She realized that given the plans and the actions of the doppelgangers, and the plans they had had for her own crew, it was probably best that she never discovered what her own mirror universe version had been like.

Chapter 3: Standing on the Edge of Forever prompt #58 graveyard


	3. Standing on the Edge of Forever

Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Productions as do all of the characters who appear here or are mentioned. The mirror-universe are a varation of my own. Note: Part 3 of the story begun in Looking for Perfection in an Imperfect Universe . Prompt #58 graveyard

Standing on the Edge of Forever. by Karen

The plan to rid themselves of well: "their other selves" to their own universe would have gone much smoother had it not been the for the unfortunate miscalculation along the way.

With the assistance of the Perseid physicist, whom Harper had brought on board to help extract the information module that had literally caused an information overload in his brain; they had at last managed to speed up that time table. Otherwise, the duration of the time might well have equaled or even exceeded the time spent by Captain Dylan Hunt trapped in an event horizon of another black hole.

It was not nearly as important as improving that time to cover the distance to the singularity, thought Dylan Hunt as stood by the pilot s chair and tapped his fingers on the armrest, as it was to be rid of the doppelgangers.

As much of her concentration had been given over to safely navigating through slipstream at the speed and course previously set during the planning stages, Beka had thus far managed to tune out most if not all of her captain s pacing and general meandering in and around the Command Deck.

As a boy I had always imagined what it would be like to meet another version of myself. Would I be younger, older, taller, shorter? I just never dreamed that it would come true. He sighed and suddenly ceased his tapping as the sudden thought struck him with all the force of as sucker punch to the gut and when he recovered he muttered under his breath to no one in particular: In this galaxy; nothing can be said for certain.

The goatee was starting to appeal to me, in an oh look at me, I m evil sort of way, Seamus Harper announced as he strode in on the heels of Dylan s realization.

Dylan nodded and Beka replied. ETA to the singularity EFL 10289 in less than five hours. She shrugged and angled her head around in an attempt to loosen up he neck and back muscles that had stiffened up in the last several hours before she added. "I wouldn't mind so much that they showed up, I mean, I think my Uncle Sid once told me stories about doppelgangers but, the fact that they tried to eliminate all of us in order to take over the ship; well, I don t know about the lot of you; but that really grinds my gears."

"You said it, sister!" Harper replied as he jumped up and down with a fist pumping in the air.

"Mr. Harper, I share you ah, enthusiasm and corroboration of Captain s Valentine s sentiments, but ah, are they confined to quarters?"

"Yeah, boss, replied in a more subdued tone of voice. But Tyr seems to think that it would be better to lock up in the brig. Do we even have a brig. A ship this size should have a brig."

"I tend to agree, but for now let s leave well enough alone, " replied Dylan.

*  
The singularity designated on the local star charts of the time appeared to be nothing more than a hundreds of kilometers wide inverted funnel. Swirling around it but not close enough to become swallowed up inside of its gravity well were several smaller cloudy nebulae picked out against the backdrop of velvety black space.

The view was hampered only slightly by the screen resolution and once that had been magnified by a factor of eight, the ship s long range sensors began to pick up ion trails and other debris.

"The ship's graveyard. I had heard legends of it, " Tyr said quietly, I had just never imagined that it actually existed.

"Yeah, you and me both, big guy," Harper said. Wow. He whistled and then folded his arms over his chest. "I do't know about the rest of you, but as cool as this is, I really don t want to see another ship s graveyard or even another event horizon again."

Tyr had been assigned duty to escort the mirror universe crew to command deck. If anyone was surprised that the doppelgangers had backed down so readily after having been stymied in their attempt to infiltrate and take over the ship and eliminate the original crew; none of them by unspoken assent would let it show; but through the subtle signals of body language and posture one could tell that there was an underlying tension for the entire duration of the preparations. In the back of his mind Harper thought, You can tell my the smiles and the looks in their eyes, they re all thinking, this is going down way too easily.

"We're here. Now what? How to get them to go back in there?" Beka asked.

"How did they get here in the first place?" asked Trance who had left her plants and joined the others on the command deck.

Mirror-Harper sneered at her and let out a high-pitched whistle. "I dunno. Why don t we try clicking our boot heels together three times while chanting in chorus: There s no place like home. There s no place like home."

"Shut up, Harper!" Mirror-Beka shouted and then darted laterally as a sudden thought occurred to he; much like her counterpart in the prime universe this Beka was very much capable of thinking on her feet, planning and executing a plan on the spot; and flying by the seat of her pants, to borrow a time-honored cliche .

She grabbed Trance by the lapel of her top and hauled over. "I've got a better idea. Why don t we send her in first, just to see if the matter transference works. Then we ll all go back like good little troopers."

"Good little troopers, Gah, " Mirror- Rev spat, leaving drops of spittle on the metal floor of the deck. "How that is the one thing I hated the most about this goody-two shoes version. To no longer have to see my counterpart toeing the line, well, all I can say. I certainly will not miss that."

A shimmer of air and the whirring hum of the ship s systems momentarily interrupted the conversation as the ship s holographic version solidified. "I have completed calculating the odds and the last computer module and have concluded that it would be possible to modify a shuttle craft for a one-way trip into the black hole."

"How do we know that once we're away from the ship," Mirror-Beka asked, "that you won t simply abandon us to get smashed to a zillion pieces inside of...". she paused and pointed to the image displayed on the view screen, "that?"

"You have my word of honor, " Dylan replied.

Mirror-Dylan Hunt stroked his goatee and said. "That might be acceptable."

Mirror-Tyr Anazasi added: " I had given you credit for having more chutzpah than this, it was the only reason I went along with your plan to infiltrate an alternate universe."

"I know what I m doing, " the other man snapped.

"Tell me something, " Dylan Hunt interrupted, Truth to tell, I still puzzled by one thing.

"And that would be?" his duplicate asked, for once since his arrival he actually stopped fussing with his facial hair.

"How bad are things in your universe? " Dylan shook his head to clear it of the inevitable cobwebs after all, theoretical quantum physics had been considered something of an esoteric science and at a certain point in his days the Commonwealth Academy for command level officers you could either take it as an elective or not at all. For someone who had beat the odds, well, such things like time travel and the like; well, they just gave him a massive headache.

B"ad enough, " the duplicate version of Beka muttered under her breath.

"Give me something to work with here, people, " Dylan exclaimed as he reached up over his head to finger comb through the strands of his sandy blond hair. Have the Magog taken over, the Netizcheans? He darted a cautious and curious glance at the one member of his crew who might have either something to add to that or a stake in what his own double might say; but if he was hoping for something more substantial that a dour glower and stoic shrug; he would be disappointed on both fronts.

'"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The Center Cannot Hold, Things Fall Apart." I am certain, Captain, that you are familiar with the quote?"Mirror-Tyr said, stepping forward out of the group and gently but forcibly releasing Trance out o the grip of mirror-Beka s grasp.

"I am, "replied Dylan, nodding in sudden understanding.

You okay, Trance? asked Harper as he went over to check on her.

"I am fine. Thank you, "she replied.

*  
It took a lot more tinkering and modifying than anyone had anticipated, but at last the shuttle craft was ready. In a rare show of camaraderie both the original Seamus Harper and his Mirror-Universe counterpart had argued for sending in a test probe into the event horizon before risking an all-or nothing gamble.

*  
A day later the shuttlecraft emerged from the Andromeda Ascendant in an arcing parabolic curve leaving a trail of fire and light in its wake.

With it's modified shielding and engines protecting it from the first of the massive graviton pressure that would have otherwise began to tear it apart. Its image on the screen growing smaller and smaller as it got farther away from their position far enough away to keep tabs on the craft and still avoid getting caught up in the same spatial forces that were even now affecting the Mirror Universe crew.

*  
Conclusion

6 hours later

"We could have just killed them, " remarked Tyr as the blip of the shuttle craft and the intruders from the Mirror Universe vanished from view. It would have been much more efficient

"Or they could have just killed us, Tyr, " Beka remarked, and I supposed from their point of view that would have been much more efficient also. I want to get outta of here in the worst way. With your permission, Captain, she turned her head to regard Dylan Hunt.

"Lay in course for anywhere slipstream will take us as long as it is far away from here, " he replied.

"You got it! " Beka replied and returned her attention to the piloting the ship.

Dylan considered and turning to Beka and the others he answered Tyr's question as best he could. I don t think it was ever that simple. If these people were really our selves from an alternate dimension; simply killing them, would be like killing off a part of ourselves.

"Come on!" Harper exclaimed. "Ya gotta be kidding me!"

Trance nodded but did not venture an opinion even when Harper gave her a beseeching look she just smiled.


End file.
